In Xinjiang’s worst ethnic violence in decades, Uighurs on July 5 attacked Han in the regional capital Urumqi after police tried to break up a protest against fatal attacks on Uighur workers at a factory in south China.

Han Chinese launched revenge attacks two days later.

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Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said last week genocide was being committed in Xinjiang and called on Chinese authorities to intervene.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said on Tuesday the accusation of genocide simply did not make sense. Most people who died in the riots were Han and over the past few decades the Uighur population in Xinjiang had shot up, he said.

A d v e r t i s e m e n t

“In which country could this be called genocide?” Qin told a regular news briefing.